Email Marketing Tip: Make Your Links Count

Usability expert Jakob Nielsen once said that email marketing is “probably the single highest ROI-action you can take to improve your internet presence.” Some studies have shown that an effective email marketing campaign can generate an ROI of nearly $10 for every $1 spent. Research by the Direct Marketing Association concluded that email marketing outperformed all other direct marketing methods in ROI.

In other words, email marketing is a highly effective tool for putting money in your pockets. At the core of email marketing is linking. Within your newsletters, you’ll be asking your customers to click links to learn more about your products and services and to take action on special deals.

To help you get the most from those links, I’ve come up with this short list of email marketing linking tips.

Make sure the link works—I know this is a “Duh” tip, but I’ve actually come across broken links in newsletters sent to me before. This is inexcusable. It takes 2 seconds to check a link to make sure it works. Always do this before sending out your email marketing message.

Don’t have too many links in a single email—The goal of your email marketing campaign is to get your readers to take action, right? Well, how can you expect them to take action if you’re asking them to do 10 different things at once? Don’t overdo it with the links or else you’ll confuse, frustrate, and overwhelm your readers.

Keep links relevant to the discussion at hand—A highly focused newsletter will always outperform one that bounces around from topic to topic. Keep your messages and your links tight and focused on a particular subject. In other words, if you’re promoting a deal on iPods in your email, don’t link out to a landing page for DVDs. Makes sense, right?

Link to specific landing pages that encourage action—This is the most important tip on the list. Going back to the iPod example, do not say “Click here to view our selection of iPod nanos” with a link that takes them to your homepage. Instead, link them to an action-oriented landing page specifically on your iPod nanos. Your readers don’t want to dig around your website to find your iPod nanos. Direct linking to landing pages is essential for achieving a decent conversion rate.

Do you use email marketing for your business? Share your favorite tips in the replies!